Erika Fekete-Horváth: On a perpetual line – Zsuzsi Csiszér’s railway carriage
Zsuzsi Csiszér carries on searching the ways of the mind, the shadows of the past, this time in an unusual way, in the form of a monumental installation in the Templespace of Museum Kiscell.
The location-specific work of art consists of two parts: one of them is a video, which shows some words rolling down, like on the notice board indicating the departures and arrivals of trains at railway stations, the other is a halved railway carriage, which forms a 45° angle with the floor of the hall (with soft background music).
The profane, lit up, contemporary means of transport placed in a dark, 18th century sacral temple hall is an astonishing sight. It is not only due to the differences stretching between the opposing poles, but also the sizes.
The composition generates a whole series of associations even in the ones who haven’t seen Zsuzsi Csiszér’s earlier works. A basis is given by the title of the exhibition (Passage) and the projected words: ‘with constant locations’, ‘on the Budapest line’, ‘searching’, ‘with true stories’ etc. When we enter the exhibition hall, we feel as if we were entering a lounge or waiting hall of a railway station: watching the projector – the notice board – we can find out where our train departs from, or we can decide which direction we are travelling to this time. Walking on, the fascinating sizes of the temple hall give a stronger and stronger impression of a railway station. The thing that offsets us is the offset carriage itself.
The train, as the means of transport used by the most people at the same time, is the eternal symbol of travelling. Csiszér’s ‘quests’ have so far concerned mostly herself: her painted collages are the stages in her self-recognition process but this time she turns her attention to society. With this train she has reached a stage of life, when, besides her own stories, she is more and more interested in the ‘true stories’ of society. The outcome or rather ‘in-come’ of this is this first class railway carriage.
After all, during a train journey the lives of several people get intertwined, especially if something unexpected happens during the journey. This carriage also tells us about a strange journey, since Csiszér did not only remove this everyday means of transport from its tracks and placed it in a museum hall (while making it a work of art), but she also placed it as if it was sticking in the ground. Descending into the depths of mind. A Passage between reality and imagination, our past and present, our emotional and spiritual stages.
If we, spectators, fill this carriage with passengers who accompanied us along the different stages of our lives, we might wonder why these people are the ones who fate brought us together with and whether everybody would stay on the train after the passage.
Csiszér’s installation can be considered a minimalist work using only a few means opposed to her great, colourful paintings with trompe l’oeil effect. As Csiszér puts it: these are the two extremes. Just as she considers herself an extremist, her works often express extremities.
curator: Péter Fitz

Travelling. On the train, the plane, in the car we are together with other people, for a short time we are experiencing the same situation. Looking out of the window of the vehicle, the landscape around us seems still. As we are getting further and further from home, another journey starts inside us, we will have a clear view of our whole life, our everyday life and the problems occupying our minds. In this way a kind of transubstantiation and understanding come into being, while the land surrounding us starts to communicate with us. However, there will always be one essential point: the window of the vehicle. This is important becuase this is a border between spaces. This is the boundary (the cover of the vehicle), one of the points, which is the characteristic of the vehicle. This connects the passengers. Different people, lives, fates…. They often have a lot in common. In case of a train, there are more people travelling together in the same place and time. If something happens to the vehicle, these people will share the same destiny or they will be part of the same history.